Termites chew into history

THE fate of an important slice of Kyogle history is likely to be decided today following a long-running battle with termites.

Kyogle Council will hold an extraordinary meeting today to determine what action to take with the old Leverett’s cordial factory.

A DA has been lodged calling for its demolition to make way for a block of modernoffice buildings.

Kyogle mayor Ross Brown said the application to rem-ove the wooden building had been looked at by council staff and was ‘now coming to councillors with recommendations’.

“There are recommendations from staff to approve the application, but it will be discussed,” he said.

Cr Brown said he couldn’t comment on the likely outcome of the discussions.

“The outcome is up to councillors,” he said.

The development application for the Wiangaree Street site was received by the council on November 13 last year from F E Marsh and Co Pty Ltd.

The DA states that investigations have been undertaken at the site, and LyonArchitects have found the building is ‘unsuitable to be used or retained for use as offices’ due to ‘termite infestation evident in the existing structure and the dilapidated state of the existing building fabric’.

“It is our recommendation that the existing building and other structures on the subject site be demolished,” the application states.

Council staff has recommended the factory be dem-olished, and replaced with a building containing five off-ices and a boardroom.

“They have found it’seffectively beyond repair,” Cr Brown said.

Photographs will be taken of the Leverett’s building in its current state for archival purposes.

Cr Brown said the DA had been submitted to councillors for approval because the council did not have a heritage listing policy, though he said it was ‘in the process of getting one’.

Should councillors vote to approve the demolition of the building, Cr Brown said they could rescind the decision up to when demolition actually took place.